Studies carried out on a wide variety of Arctic species during the polar night reveal continued feeding, growth and reproduction, changing our view of this period from one of biological stasis to a time of continued high activity levels. Prof Geraint Tarling from the British Antarctic Survey use his experience as a polar researcher to place the recent findings from the polar night (Berge et al 2015 in Current Biology) in a wider context. Download the Tarling 2015 paper here.